


Human

by soullessfollower98



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: (basically he's a raccoon), Alternate Universe, Animal Crossing - Freeform, Animal crossing AU, M/M, bull!geoff, cow!Ryan, koala!kara, ostrich!gavin, penguin!ray, rabbit!lindsay, tanuki!jack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 11:26:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3935095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soullessfollower98/pseuds/soullessfollower98
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael Jones moves to Crossbay, a little town in basically the middle of nowhere. He's leaving his old life behind, starting fresh. The people of Crossbay are kind, extremely so, but stuck in their ways. Michael's arrival will definitely shake things up a bit.<br/>Oh, and one more thing - all the townspeople are part animal.<br/>(Animal Crossing AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Human

Michael couldn’t believe he was doing this.

It was totally reckless, right? Leaving everything he’d ever known and going to some strange new town in the middle of nowhere. A town where he had no friends, no acquaintances. He wasn’t even going to take anything with him. It was _completely_ reckless, completely stupid.

But, sitting at a cold, lonely bus stop in the middle of the night, his knee bouncing in nervous anticipation…Michael had never felt more alive.

This was a fresh start. A much needed fresh start. And he was ready for it.

Looking down the street, Michael could see the bus turn the corner, headlights bright and a very stark contrast to the relative darkness he’d been sitting for the past forty minutes. It made its way down the street, until it was slowing down and stopping in front of him, and then the door opened.

Michael quickly stood up, tugging his jacket more tightly around himself, and stepped onto the bus.

It was vacant, except for the driver, who was wearing a hat and coat, so Michael couldn’t see their face very well. He handed them the money he owed, and the person huffed out a quiet, gruff “thanks,” so Michael figured it was a man.

The vehicle started moving again as he was sitting down. The atmosphere of the bus was stiff, uninviting, awkward, so staring out the window at the passing, empty streets seemed like the best idea.

Until the driver said, “What’s your name, kid?”

Michael glanced up at him, but, naturally, he was looking at the road. He hesitated a few seconds, then finally said, “Michael.”

The driver didn’t miss a beat. “Where you headed?”

“Crossbay.” He’d heard about the little town a few weeks ago, he didn’t even remember where. Maybe it was in the news, maybe it was online. Either way, the name of it had stuck with him, poking and prodding his mind with fantasies of what could be there, what he could make for himself there. Eventually he’d caved and looked it up, seeing that it was only a few hours away. It was the article that called it “quaintly unusual” that had finally made up his mind.

“Crossbay, huh?” The driver chuckled, and it seemed humorless yet good natured at the same time. “Not a lot of stops at Crossbay.”

Michael wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he remained silent, turning back to the window. They were now on open road, nothing but dark fields surrounding them. It was considerably more boring than the streets.

After about fifteen minutes, sleep started to pull at Michael’s mind, and weights were lowered onto his eyes, making him unable to keep them open for more than ten seconds at a time. After about five minutes of battle, Michael surrendered, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 

“Kid, wake up, we’re at your stop.”

Michael slowly blinked himself awake, sitting up from his slumped, uncomfortable position. He looked around, his tired eyes trying to focus on his surroundings, and the first thing he registered was that it was now day. Early morning light was shining in through the various windows, and instead of being surrounded by empty fields, they were in a bus station.

“We’re at Crossbay?” Michael asked, stupidly, but his mind was muddled, groggy, and he couldn’t help it.

“No, I just woke you up for the hell of it,” the driver deadpanned, and Michael noticed that he still wasn’t turned around. He was just staring out in front of him, hood still up, coat still on.

“Right, right, thank you,” Michael said quickly, ignoring the man’s sarcasm and standing up, walking to the front of the bus. He looked at the driver, expecting some sort of acknowledgement, some sort of farewell, but got nothing.

So he stepped off the bus, into the unknown, and it immediately drove away, the man not turning his head.

Michael slowly walked out of the station, looking around, taking in his surroundings. It certainly was a beautiful place; there were trees scattered everywhere, flowers right along with them. He could see a long, winding river in the distance, and faint silhouettes of small, uniquely shaped houses.

 _This place is almost too pretty for a piece of shit like me,_ he thought, absentmindedly, and then he spotted a large, white, official-looking building, not too far from him.

He had called a few days prior, to make sure there was a house he could rent there, and the woman he had spoken to had identified herself as the town’s secretary. She had told him that when he arrived, go straight to the Town Hall, and she would be there, ready to welcome him into their community.

What was her name? Carly? Cameron? He couldn’t remember.

Michael started walking towards the building, assuming that it was the Town Hall, and even if it wasn’t, someone inside could probably point him in the right direction. When he got there, he stepped inside, closing the door behind him, and when he turned around, his heart leapt into his throat.

It _was_ the Town Hall – he had assumed correctly. The place was obviously an office, with stacks of paper lying here and there, along with pens and other supplies. There was a counter that stretched the width of the room, dividing it into the place the town staff could go, and the place the general public could.

The thing that had Michael so shocked, though, was the secretary. She was leaning against the counter, comfortably but determinedly filling out some paper work, her face set in an expression of concentration.

She was also half koala.

Michael knew people like that existed; he’d read plenty about them, always having been fascinated by the thought of living life as a hybrid. He’d just never _seen_ one.

This was definitely not what he had thought _quaintly unusual_ meant.

The koala looked up at him, her face undeniably cute, and she looked shocked for a second before she composed herself, and happiness and a smile replaced it.

“Hi there!” she said, straightening up and looking very secretary-ish. “You must be Michael. I’m Kara! We talked over the phone, remember?”

Michael’s throat felt like it was closing up, and he coughed, muttering a quiet _fuck_ before answering her. “Y-Yes, yes I do. Hi.”

If she could tell that he was freaked about her _koala-ness_ , she didn’t know it. “Well, I’m sure you’re excited to see your new home, aren’t you?”

Michael nodded a little, still trying to act natural, and probably failing. “Yeah, yeah, I definitely am.”

“Well, we’ll get that all set up in just a minute, but first I have something to give you.” Kara turned around, rummaging through one of the stacks of papers. When she turned back, she had something that looked like a map in her hands – _paws?_ – and she set it in front of her, pressing it flat against the counter.

Michael stepped forward, peering at it, and it _was_ a map.

“This is the town of Crossbay,” Kara said. “It’s not very big, but that just means that everybody’s that much closer!” She paused to offer him a smile, which he meekly returned, and she continued. “There’s a key on the side here-” She pointed to the left margin of the map, where there were symbols and words. “-so you know what everything is. Your house is right…here!” She put her finger on a blue house symbol that was right near what appeared to be a beach. “You can head over there now, and I’ll call Jack and tell him you’re on your way.” Michael must’ve looked confused at the mention of whoever Jack was, because Kara elaborated. “Jack is the owner of the main shop in town. He’s also a great architect!”

“Oh.” Michael was quiet for a couple seconds, taking in everything on the map, and when he glanced up, Kara was staring at him. He smiled a little at her. “Thanks. I’ll go right over.”

“Great!” She stood up straight again, because they’d both been hunched over the map, and smoothed out her shirt. “It was very nice meeting you, Michael. I hope we talk again soon.”

Michael wanted to say _ditto_ , but it seemed too… _informal_. So he said, “Likewise,” smiled again, picked up the map, then walked out, making sure the door shut softly behind him.

He immediately started walking towards his house, not having to pull out his map after staring at it for so long with Kara. He passed several houses on his way, each of them different than the last, in shape and color. _Kind of like snowflakes_.

When he arrived at his house, he was disappointed to see that it was more on the plain side. It was a generic, square shape with white siding, and a black, triangle roof. He went around to the front, planning to go inside, but he stopped when he saw a giant… _raccoon_ …standing in front of his door.

When it heard Michael’s approach, it turned around, revealing itself to be half man. _This must be Jack_ , Michael thought, slowly walking up to him. _Not what I was expecting. Christ._

“Hello!” Jack said, reaching out to grasp and shake Michael’s hand. “Michael, is it?”

“Yeah, Michael. Hi. You’re Jack?”

“The one and only.” He smiled, the same kind of warm, friendly smile Kara had, then he turned to face the house. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” When Michael didn’t answer right away, Jack turned back to look at him. When he saw his unsure, awkward expression, he laughed. “No, no, it’s okay, I know, it’s sort of plain right now. But that’s definitely easily fixed! I just didn’t want to do a design in case you didn’t like it.”

Michael felt relief fill him, and he nodded a little. “Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Thanks.”

“Oh, no problem! Do you wanna take a look inside?” Jack didn’t wait for him to answer, he just hurriedly went inside, holding the door open for Michael, who almost tripped and fell on his face trying to get inside quickly enough.

When he looked around, he was again disappointed. The walls were an ugly off-white, the floor concrete, and the only furniture was a candle sitting on top of a cardboard box. But then he remembered what Jack had told him, about not wanting him to not like the design, and he understood the boringness. But that didn’t mean he liked it.

“You’ll liven this place up, I have no doubts of that,” Jack said, gently touching the candle. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

“I’m not,” Michael lied. Or maybe it was a half lie? He didn’t know.

Jack either didn’t notice his unease, or just didn’t respond to it. “There is the little issue of payment that we have to discuss.”

“Payment?” He was just talking about the rent…right?

“The cost for this house will be about…” Jack stared at a wall, looking concentrated, and then his face brightened. “Oh, yes, 19,000 bells!”

Michael blinked a few times, his mind not being able to accurately process what he was hearing. First of all, what Jack was saying sure as hell didn’t sound like rent. He hadn’t been planning on _buying_ a house…and what the fuck were _bells_?

Jack must’ve caught onto to Michael’s confusion, because he said, “Bells are our currency here. They’re pretty much useless everywhere else, but you’ll definitely need them to survive here!”

“You expect me to get 19,000 of them?” In the back of his mind, Michael knew it was a bad idea to get frustrated and possibly rude when they’d only first met five minutes ago. But what he was saying was _ridiculous_. If “bells” were anything like dollars, getting 19,000 of them wasn’t going to be very easy.

And for this shitty, boring house, no less.

 _It’s plain on purpose_ , he reminded himself, but that didn’t make him feel any better.

“On your own time, of course!” Jack said, not seeming to really notice Michael’s irritation. “I wouldn’t expect you to get it all paid off today, or even tomorrow.”

“It’s going to take me _years_ to get that much.” He had _just_ moved here, he didn’t expect to be so inexplicably tethered so _soon_. But here he was, and he was being _weighed down_ with 100 pound weights. He could already feel anxiety and dread filling his brain as he thought of how much he was going to have to work to get that much money.

Jack looked confused, though. “What?” Michael was about to open his mouth (and very possibly cuss him out) but then the raccoon’s face was brightening again, and he laughed. He fucking _laughed_. “Oh, Michael, you don’t have to worry about anything. Bells are much easier to get than dollars. For example, did you see some of the fruit on the trees out there?” Michael shook his head. “Well, we have a wide variety, but our native fruit is cherries. Those are worth 100 bells.”

“Cherries are worth 100 dollars?”

“Bells,” Jack corrected. “Foreign fruits are worth 500.”

Michael’s eyes widened. “Holy shit.”

Jack chuckled a little. “Yes, yes…” He trailed off, seeming to be deep in thought, and then it was almost like a light bulb went off above his head. “Why don’t you work for me for a little today? Get some of the house paid off?”

“I-I, well I don’t kn-”

“No, I think it’s a fantastic idea!” Jack was almost beaming, and looking very proud of himself. “I’ll head over there right now, get things set up, and you – you can go and meet everyone in town!”

“Oh, well, sure, okay.” It wouldn’t be a _terrible_ thing, paying off a portion of the 19,000. It seemed better than Michael’s first thought – get a metric shit ton of fruit and sell it.

And meeting his neighbors…it would happen eventually, right? Why not get it over with?

“Great!” Jack was moving towards the door now, and sort of rambling, too. “Oh, this’ll be very, very good. Get some work done, you’ll meet everybody, oh, have you met the mayor yet?” Jack turned around and looked at him, and Michael shook his head. “Make sure to do that. Geoff will want to meet you, I’m sure.” The raccoon was at the door now, and he opened it, said, “Come by my shop when you’ve met everyone!” over his shoulder, and then he was gone.

Michael just stood there for a couple minutes, trying to process everything that had just happened.

He was apparently buying a house. (From a giant raccoon, no less.) He had to pay 19,000 “bells” for it. He was going to work for the previously mentioned giant raccoon to start and pay it off. And, before that, he had to go meet his neighbors, and _Mayor Geoff_ , which he could only assume were a plethora of different other animals.

_Quaintly unusual. You can fucking say that again._


End file.
